


Vanguard Haechi: “The moments when you’re in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down”

by Entropic_Wren



Series: "Every Time A Jaeger Falls" [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Character Study, Gen, OCs - Freeform, Original Female Character - Freeform, Original Jaeger - Freeform, Original Male Character - Freeform, beware of the angst, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 22:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21260813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entropic_Wren/pseuds/Entropic_Wren
Summary: Ji-Yeong couldn't quite define what relationship he had with his co-pilot Kalea, but one thing was for certain.He'd make sure she survived this. No matter what.





	Vanguard Haechi: “The moments when you’re in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down”

Ji-Yeong had a few ambitions in his life, succeeding in university, get that engineering degree, and find time on the side to game a little. For a while he had been succeeding, his GPA was looking good and he was managing to balance a good work, study and personal life.

Gaming proved to be a good escape and additionally had grown more entertaining with the appearance of NovaVanguard. Nova… was a pain. More often than not they were on different teams and ended up being more of a one on one fight between her and him – HaechiCharge… it was safe to say those were names from their younger days.

Slowly it got to the point where they had sought themselves out, challenging each other for one on ones. But then the Kaiju attack happened and there was no time for NovaVanguard or HaechiCharge. For him, it was due to the change of plans he had following the loss of half his family.

…Where what remained of his family clung to each other, Ji-Yeong had drifted apart. He couldn’t face the empty chairs yet. And perhaps that was enough rage in him to try to pick a fight with a Kaiju in a massive Jaeger.

Thus he joined the Jaeger Program.

Then came the point where he had time to return to gaming properly during the late hours of the morning and saw a familiar name.

NovaVanguard.

…They were in the same region as him… and awake at this god-forsaken hour…

These two facts made the Korean male soon have an epiphany. Nova was a cadet too. The following days were followed with Ji-Yeong channelling his inner Sherlock Holmes to figure out who was Nova… Which was stupid considering how many cadets there were in the program.

But by sheer dumb luck, he found his answer during the day off. All thanks to sighting a woman with wavy dark hair and sun-tanned skin tapping away at her laptop as she played a game… the name that popped up as she made a kill was his final clue.

“Hello Nova.”

Admittedly it wasn’t the best way to introduce yourself but it was effective, Ji-Yeong got an actual name (Kaela) and scored some co-op games with her (more than some to be honest).

As they played on in the recreation room, it had steadily gotten noticeable to bystanders that the two didn’t have to talk about what they were going to do. And after many other examples of this happening someone had voiced if the two had ever tried to spar together.

A shared look and a shrug led to the two finding themselves in the Kwoon Room, discovering that as it turned out neither of them could actually land a hit on the other. Admittedly they dismissed it, in part because the two had seen each other spar- they probably knew how the other moved by this point. But the moment their instructor had found out – tests were run.

And as it turned out they were drift compatible, and in turn, were put on the list for a jaeger.

When they graduated and were giving their Jaeger it took only a small discussion before the two decided to merge part of their gamer names “Vanguard Haechi”.

Free nights were still spent following playing more co-op games, slowly getting closer both mentally and physically, as eventually, Kalea had claimed his crossed legs as her throne.

And if asked Ji-Yeong would never be able to distinguish what Kalea was to him besides ‘partner’, 'friend' wasn’t enough, and they didn’t see anything romantic in each other… perhaps that’s why ‘drift partner’ and ‘soul mate’ seemed to be synonymous – nothing else could come close.

Things looked good though. They made quite the team, Ji-Yeong in the right hemisphere and Kaelea in the left. The got a handful of kills in while they found themselves (after being in the cold Alaskan snow) in Vladivostok… plus side they had adjusted to the cold weather by that point.

Things were good until they weren’t. Somehow a Kaiju managed to land a hit which took out their power pretty swiftly. Haechi was robust. The idea of having lost power was something that never crossed their minds. They especially didn't think it was possible to lose it so quickly.

“She’s dead in the water,” Kalea said gritting her teeth as she tried to get the jaeger’s console to respond.

Ji-Yeong let his eyes move away from her for a moment, and it was in that moment that his stomach plummeted.

“Kalea, disengage now!”

Kalea’s eyes snapped to him before looking forward, blanching at the sight of the charging kaiju. Or more specifically the clawed hand which it had aimed the directly dead centre of the COMM-POD. The following next few minutes were a blur as the two scrambled to try to get out of their harnesses. Trapped in what was potentially no longer their armour but instead a metal coffin. The way J-Yeong saw it there was a very slim chance that by moving they’d survive… if they didn’t it was guaranteed death.

The dark-haired male found himself stumbling away from the harnesses just as the claw came crashing through the screen. A twist of his body though meant he was able to see that Kalea’s escape was not as clean. While she did manage to move in time, she hadn’t gotten far enough away for the shrapnel-like parts of Haechi to not hit her. Most of the drift suit seemed to have protected her… except for her helmet.

The shattered front made that vividly clear to Ji-Yeong, along with how limp she was on the ground.

And as Kaiju pulled back it arms, dragging the empty harnesses with it – Ji-Yeong scrambled to his co-pilot practically screaming her name. Only a tiny part of his brain caught up on how terrifying how that Kaiju next exactly where the harness was… about on the same level on how it managed to make Haechi immobile.

“Come ‘Lea… wake up,” Ji-Yeong said shakily, finding himself removing her helmet with a few clicks.

Quickly he ran through the options and found only one stupid idea being the best idea. Jumping and hoping for the best. Which was definitely stupid, but the suits were a little airtight, and they could hold on in the deepwater long enough to stand a chance.

_“Or… one of us at least,”_ Ji-Yeong mentally corrected as he scrambled to swap the two helmets around.

Just as he had, the kaiju had came back for a second round. In the process, it ripped off the ‘face’ of Haechi and exposing Ji-Yeong to the full scene of what was happening outside as he clutched Kalea tightly against him. Twisting his body in the hope of protecting Kalea even just a little.

…There definitely was nothing more terrifying than watching helplessly as huge claws peeled back solid steel as if it was butter, the horror of the sight echoing on Ji-Yeong’s face and in his mind.

His attention broke from that though as he sighted the charging Nova Hyperion… that would present enough of a distraction for him to make this stupid idea of an escape, from there… even he didn’t know.

Planning to jump, holding his co-pilot, probably falling at great speeds and being only able to hope that both his and Kalea’s emergency chutes could work… he didn’t want to dare acknowledge was probably the most insane idea he had had to date. But it was their only option. That Kaiju had made it clear that even Vanguard Haechi being immobile wasn’t enough for it.

So waiting with bated breath for the kaiju’s attention to go back to Nova, Ji-Yeong found himself slipping into native tongue and rambling anything that came to mind. The moment the kaiju had turned to charge at Nova the Korean had gotten up and lifted Kalea with him, soon taking a running jump out of Haechi.

He couldn’t decide which part was more terrifying; the fall, the impact or the drowning. The fall which was made up of waiting for the ‘waist’ of their jaeger to be in sight before praying their chutes worked… the impact which, even with one chute that did work, felt worse than falling out of a tree. Or the drowning part, where the helmet he had on held no protection from the water and he struggled to swim up in a heavy drive suit while pulling up his co-pilot with him.

Floating wasn’t half the challenge in the end, not when he had to keep it up while fighting the waves that a charging Cherno Alpha made as it reached the battlefield. Or the waves that came as the Kaiju ripped apart Vanguard Haechi. In the end, a human, no matter how much training they had, could only hold on for so long.

And Ji-Yeong was reminded of that as he wondered which would occur first, Nova’s hand reaching them… or him drowning.


End file.
